In our study of the book of Romans, this morning we
look at an exceedingly difficult chapter, one that has
caused great controversy among Christian theologians
through the years. I invite you to open your Bibles if
you would to Romans, Chapter Number 7, and we'll look
at these words together. Romans 7.

Let's bow for prayer.

"Father, this morning we do indeed walk in deep water.
We trust that in the process Thy Spirit will show us
how to swim, and those places where we can touch the
bottom of it. We come with many needs - some expecting
nothing... some with, yea, great expectations. You
deal with us, 0, Lord, we ask, where we live, where we
are. Give us sensitivity, receptivity, openness to the
leadership of Thy word and of divine truth. Lord, You
speak. Let me get out of the way so that Thy word, and
Thy holy and divine message might not only be heard
but may it be received and understood and incorporated
into our lifestyles. For we make this prayer through
Jesus Christ, our living Lord. Amen."

Romans 7 teaches us that as Christians we are free
from the law. Now that should bring protest from this
congregation. We are free from the law. The Ten
Commandments, the decalogue, the divine precepts of
God no longer bind the Christian. If we think about it
a little bit, it... it staggers us. And then we begin
to question: "Is that really true?" If it staggers us
in the Twentieth Century, how it must have overwhelmed
the Hebrew listeners in the day in which Paul wrote
this letter to the church at Rome. He spent almost a
chapter and a half proving how that the law does not
save anyone. He demonstrated how that no one could
possibly keep every precept, every tenet of the law
and you would have to do this to be right with God. He
said we're born in sin. We have a proclivity. We have
an inclination, a twist toward sin. He says, "You
can't be saved by the law." This was mind-boggling to
the Jews. They had been taught all of their lives to
keep the law, to keep the law, to reverence the law,
to obey the law, to follow the law. Now he had blasted
this concept. And now he stands up and says, "As
Christians, you're not even bound by the law.

Romans starts off, and we wade through sin and we see
that we're lost. Then we see how we can be saved. We
see justification by faith. And then we walk to the
point to understand how we grow as Christians ... how
we proceed ... how we progress. And a part of the
process is our attitude toward the law, our attitude
toward the commandments, our attitude toward the
teachings of God. And Romans 7 begins with a shocking
statement. There's a precept, and then the next two
verses - Verse 2 and 3 - is an illustration of this
precept. And then there's an application. Here's a
statement. That statement is illustrated and then it
is applied, as we see th ...

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